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Cory Douglas
Director, Treasurer
Cory Douglas is a senior financial leader executive with deep experience with founder-led high-growth technologies and operating cultures, having run global teams in finance and accounting, investor relations, treasury, budgeting, and regulatory compliance. Cory provided financial leadership for New York-based (formerly Nasdaq listed) tech companies Medidata and DoubleClick, as well as the BISYS Group (formerly listed on NYSE). Cory also worked for Colgate-Palmolive, a blue-chip global consumer products company, focusing on their international operations, especially in Africa and the Middle East. Cory began his career at the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, where he earned his CPA. Cory holds an MBA from The Ohio State University and a BS in Accounting from San Francisco State University.
Most recently, Cory earned an MA from the Drew University Theological School, where he pursued his passion for comparative religion, philosophy, and literature. Upon graduation, Cory completed the Camino de Santiago, an 800k pilgrimage across northern Spain. Throughout his career, Cory has maintained a strong affinity for the humanities and a deep appreciation for the work of Joseph Campbell. Previously, Cory served on the board of an urban, community-focused art institute that provided a platform for underrepresented, mid-career contemporary artists. Cory also serves on the board of the C.G. Jung Institute of New York.
For more information, visit Cory's profile on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cory-douglas-6200242
Lisa A. Kofod
Director, Secretary
Lisa is a writer and producer whose professional focus is business-to-business marketing, training and development. She is deeply nerdy and has been known to attend science-fiction and steampunk conventions. Lisa was raised in the Bronx and continues to make her home in New York City.
Dawn Crowder
Director, Governance Committee chair
Dawn Crowder is a practicing corporate attorney and President of Growth Strategy Advisors, a consulting firm founded in 2006. Dawn has an extensive corporate background working with a wide range of entities including fortune 500 companies, non-profit corporations, and start-up ventures. In addition to her legal and corporate work, Dawn is an executive coach, advisor, and facilitator and focuses her work in these areas on building high-performance teams.
Dawn previously held corporate roles as an engineer at Ford Motor Company, an investment banker at The Royal Bank of Canada, and a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Senior Vice President in the Corporate Real Estate Group at Bank of America. She also previously practiced law in the Business and Finance practice of Saul Ewing, LLP. Dawn has published numerous articles in the Food and Drug Law Journal and the Legal Insider publication HcPro. She also co-authored the 2013 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Guidebook.
Dawn is a certified yoga and meditation instructor as well as a certified Dream Tending Practitioner (certification from Pacifica Graduate Institute). Dawn is a student of mythology and believes that myths are the dreams of the collective. She also believes that dreams are an invaluable source of self knowledge and can be used to help us understand and find meaning in the dynamics of our inner and outer lives.
Dawn has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and a Master’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Michigan. She holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in finance and organizational behavior from Duke University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Dawn lives outside of Philadelphia, PA with her husband and three children.
Susan Chamberlin
Board Chair, Vice President
Susan Chamberlin is the CEO of the Warhawk Fund, an early-stage investment fund and adjunct faculty at Harrison Middleton University. Previously, Chamberlin was the Chief of Staff for a family office, the chair of the Boston Security Token Exchange and director at the Alliance for Liberal Learning, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting liberal education as a lifelong endeavor. Chamberlin has also served as a principal gifts officer for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
From 2004–15, Chamberlin served three terms as Trustee of the National Outdoor Leadership School. Her tenure included serving as vice chair and secretary of the board as well as chair of the governance and public policy committees. NOLS is the leading provider of leadership and outdoor skills offered in the classroom of an extended wilderness expedition.
Prior to moving to Chicago to pursue her MBA in 2009, Chamberlin was the vice president for government affairs at the Cato Institute, a nonprofit public policy research organization. Chamberlin also taught and practiced law in Washington, DC. Chamberlin received her MBA from Chicago Booth, her JD from Wake Forest University School of Law, and her BS in industrial psychology from the University of Maryland. Chamberlin lives in New York City where she enjoys tennis, book club and singing and playing guitar in a band.
Kwame Scruggs, PhD
Director
Kwame Scruggs has over 20 years of experience using myth in the development of urban youth and adults. He holds a Ph.D. and MA in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. Kwame also holds a MS degree in Technical Education with an emphasis in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Akron. In 1993, he was formally initiated into the Akan System of Life Cycle Development (African-based rites of passage).
Kwame is the founder and director of Alchemy, a non-profit organization in Akron, Ohio established in 2003. Alchemy uses myths to engage adolescents. In 2012, Alchemy was one of 12 programs to receive the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities—the nation’s highest honor for after-school and out-of-school programs. Alchemy was also the backdrop for a feature-length documentary, “Finding the Gold Within.”
In 2020, the Association of Teaching Artists (with Lincoln Center Education) presented Kwame with their Innovation in Teaching Artistry award. In 2016, he received the University of Akron’s Black Male Summit Legacy Award. In 2013, Pacifica Graduate Institute presented him with the initial Wendy Davee Award for Outstanding Service and contributions in the tradition of soulful service.
Since 2017, Kwame has been a Part Time Lecturer for the DSW Program School of Social Work, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He has been a Key-Note presenter at Pacifica Graduate Institute and C.G. Jung sites of New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Dallas.
Kwame is a board member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and a graduate of the National Guild Community Art Education’s CAELI (Community Arts Education Leadership Institute) Class of 2015 and a BMe Fellow (2017).
www.kwamescruggs.com
www.alchemyinc.net
John Bucher, PhD
Executive Director
John Bucher is a mythologist, storyteller, and writer based out of Los Angeles, California. He has worked with government and cultural leaders around the world as well as organizations including HBO, DC Comics, The History Channel, A24 Films, Atlas Obscura, and The John Maxwell Leadership Foundation. He has served as a producer, consultant, and writer for numerous film, television, and Virtual Reality projects and is the author of six books including the best-selling Storytelling for Virtual Reality, named by BookAuthority as one of the best storytelling books of all time.
Affiliations
John previously served as the Co-Director of the Los Angeles Film Studies Center and Executive Director of the Damah Film Festival. John is a Mentor Ambassador for VR | AR | MR, India’s first immersive technology community; serves on the Board of Directors for TOMARS.SPACE, an organization working at the intersection of space tourism, fashion, and technology; and the Advisory Board of Tellretell, a content development and world building organization, based out of Taipei, Taiwan. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the International Association for Comparative Mythology.
Education & Licenses
John holds a PhD and MA in Mythology and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California and an MA in Communications from the University of Colorado. He also holds a PCC certification from the International Coaching Federation. He has spoken on 6 continents about using the power of story and myth to reframe how individuals, organizations, cultures, and nations believe and behave.
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